Seeking to use his talent to provide humanitarian support during the COVID-19 pandemic, designer Bernard Ramsay has launched a t-shirt project to raise funds for several homes for the elderly.
All of the shirts are printed with similar phrases used by the Ministry of Health, and other organizations to bring about public awareness of the virus through a more fun and creative way to appeal to the buyer. Some of the phrases were originally conceptualized by Ramsay himself.
“I was thinking about it one day and being a creative person I decided to [do] this,” Ramsay told Stabroek Weekend. He added, “My designs are aimed to send a serious message in a more middle of the road way by not being too funny but at the same time to grab attention. The designs are all originals using statements which are familiar and relative to the pandemic. I have kept them simple and used illustrations that are appropriate to each statement. For those who like a bolder approach, there is one which says ‘Cover Up or be Covered Up’ and the graphics is a grave. Another shows a dog with a face mask that reads ‘Don’t Leave Home Without it’ so there is something for everyone….”
Each t-shirt costs $3,000 and at least 80% of the total sales will be donated to The Palms, Archer’s Home, the Dharm Shala, and Uncle Eddie’s Home. T-shirts can also be customized at an additional cost determined by the level of work required.
Ramsay began his career in designing, advertising and marketing decades ago. The name ‘Bernard Ramsay’ became synonymous with Mashramani costume designing from the 1970s up until the 1990s. His career later evolved into advertising at the Guyana Graphic Newspaper and sometime after at the British advertising agency of Lonsdale-Hands before joining Carib Advertising Services with the Bookers Group of Companies. In 1990 Ramsay founded his own advertising company, called Creative Advertising & Marketing (CAM).
In 2004, the designer created a line of t-shirts dubbed ‘Tribal Vibes,’ which focus-ed on the petroglyphs of the Indigenous tribes and he sold them mainly to tourists in Guyana and later in the US.
Ramsay can be contacted on telephone number 674-9147 or at bernardramsay@hotmail.com by anyone interested in ordering the shirts.
